Waltham Forest Council leader Grace Williams was among the local government figures giving evidence to a House of Commons committee this week, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter

The cost of keeping people in temporary accommodation is “unsustainable,” the leader of Waltham Forest Council has warned.

Senior councillors and experts from Waltham Forest, Hastings, Rochdale and Epsom councils were invited to give evidence to a housing, communities and local government committee in the House of Commons on 5th November, after £1.3billion was allocated for town halls in the autumn budget.

Grace Williams, leader of Waltham Forest Council, was among those who spoke at the committee hearing in Westminster this week. She said: “London is at the centre of a housing crisis. At the moment, it is London facing the brunt of temporary accommodation pressures.

“No borough wants to place people outside its own borough.”

She added: “We’re at the situation now where we simply can’t sustain housing within our boroughs.”

Relocating people is “putting pressure” on the home counties surrounding London, the committee heard, with around 10% being settled outside the capital.

Cllr Williams said around 75% of London councils’ housing budgets were being spent on temporary accommodation and housing at-risk residents.

Once a resident becomes homeless, the town hall owes them a statutory duty to provide them with a place to stay. In many cases, this will be a room in a hotel or other bed-and-breakfast (B&B) style of accommodation.

She said councils did not have enough affordable housing nor the resources for families to afford to stay in their boroughs.

Though Cllr Williams said London councils have a “good track record” on building new homes, cost remained an obstacle.

She said increasing costs of construction and planning “were making it really difficult”.

Between 2019/20 and 2023/24, Waltham Forest hit the Mayor of London’s target of building around 1,200 new homes each year.

However, neighbouring Redbridge, for example, reached just 14% of its target – despite approving rafts of plans.

Hannah Dalton, leader of Epsom and Ewell Council, told the committee that town halls face an average shortfall in their housing budgets of £1.1m.

The cost of temporary accommodation has risen from £90 a night to more than £130.

She said: “This means councils are having to absorb these costs. They’re having to divert money they should be putting into the preventative measures they want to put in place, to support temporary accommodation.”

Chris Hancock, head of housing at Hastings Borough Council, said the authority spends around half of its £18m budget on temporary accommodation, which he called “completely unsustainable”.

He said: “It means there are a lot of things we can’t do as a borough, outside of housing, that we want to do for residents.”

The pressures of housing obligations, alongside social care, have led to councils overspending on their annual budgets.

Waltham Forest Council is facing a £17m deficit this year, while Havering Council in the east of the capital is projecting a budget shortfall of £75m next year.

Cllr Williams added: “We’re at the stage now where a number of boroughs are facing bankruptcy just over this one issue.”

National funding for councils has significantly dropped since 2010, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In June, it reported that councils’ funding per person had fallen by a real-term average of 26% across the UK.

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